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Saturday, February 20, 2010

Assassination in Dubai: Never has so much surveillance video been made of a secret mission.

The video takes almost 30 minutes to watch. The quality is amazing. The Mossad operation was recorded and detailed by Dubai State Security. A time line and identification was made of the events that lead to and followed the killing of the military commander of Hamas, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

The Mossad operation is brilliantly coordinated and flawlessly executed, except that it was recorded and available for analysis. There are clear videos, photos and analysis of the not so secret agents. That is not considered a good thing in most clandestine operations.

Claims that Mossad knew they were being recorded is laughable and absurd. You can look at this remarkable video and decide for yourself.

I am certain Mossad has watched this hundreds of times and realizes that in the future, Dubai may not be the best place to make a hit and still protect your agents.

I have no ethical problem with a controlled state sponsored killing of an enemy, but the wisdom and ethics of using passports from unwary and uninvolved civilians is astonishing to me.

There can be no possible up side to such a foolish decision. However, I wait in eager anticipation for any explanation or theory that has so far eluded me.

14 comments:

On Feb. 15, the New York Times revealed that Pakistani and United States intelligence officers captured Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Afghan Taliban's second in command. According to the Times, the capture occurred in Karachi several days before the publication of its article. Both Pakistani and U.S. intelligence officers were interrogating the Taliban leader. ...Much of the commentary on Baradar's capture has focused on the role of Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The ISI has been the Afghan Taliban's sponsor and protector in the past. Yet now the ISI is publicly involved in Baradar's capture (or defection). Does Baradar possess some long-term value to the Pakistani government?

A follow-up story in the New York Times revealed that prior to his capture, Afghan and U.S. officials had indirect contact with Baradar and had negotiated with him, presumably about reconciliation. According to the piece, the Pakistani government was not a party to these talks....the Obama team is hoping for a political settlement in Afghanistan that leads to a relative calm, at least long enough to allow most of the U.S. military forces in the country to gracefully exit. For its part, Pakistan might also prefer a truce. Pakistani leaders may worry that an escalating ground war in Afghanistan and a drone campaign on Pakistan's frontier could eventually obliterate the Afghan Taliban's command structure, crippling Pakistan's influence inside Afghanistan. By this reasoning, both the United States and Pakistan would have an interest in a truce occurring sometime soon.

Might Baradar be the man in the best position to bring about such a truce? If he was able to convince most of his comrades to cease fire, Pakistan is in a position to reward him. U.S. officials would hardly frown on such a settlement, as long as it lasted long enough for Washington's purposes. The biggest loser might be Afghan President Hamid Karzai. But few in the White House seem concerned for his feelings these days.Posted by Robert Haddick

BAGHDAD – The Sunni wing of Iraq's leading nonsectarian political coalition said Saturday it will drop out of next month's election as a result of alleged Iranian influence on a Shiite-led vetting panel that blacklisted hundreds of candidates.

Political cronyism: Interviewing President Obama before the Super Bowl, Katie Couric asked about “all these special deals that were given to certain senators,” which, she said, made the American people “pretty sick to their stomachs.”He replied, “They did not help.They frustrate me.”

Now, Politico reports that part of why the president wants to use the “budget reconciliation” process is to exempt union workers from the tax on “Cadillac” insurance plans. In other words, Americans would pay a 40-percent tax on health benefits above a certain point — unless they belong to a union, a core constituent of the Democratic party.

"In any event, both the Congressional Budget Office and the Medicare Chief Actuary have said that, under Obamacare, insurance premiums would be higher than under current law.

So, the solution to high premiums is to pass legislation that would raise them?

In each of these ways, the disconnect between cause and effect, problem and solution, rhetoric and reality, is astounding.

Of course, the biggest disconnect is between the Obama administration and the American people. Americans have made it abundantly clear that they don’t want Obamacare. President Obama has made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t care."

Political cronyism: Interviewing President Obama before the Super Bowl, Katie Couric asked about “all these special deals that were given to certain senators,” which, she said, made the American people “pretty sick to their stomachs.”He replied, “They did not help.They frustrate me.”

Now, Politico reports that part of why the president wants to use the “budget reconciliation” process is to exempt union workers from the tax on “Cadillac” insurance plans. In other words, Americans would pay a 40-percent tax on health benefits above a certain point — unless they belong to a union, a core constituent of the Democratic party.

This is the remedy for cronyism?

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"In any event, both the Congressional Budget Office and the Medicare Chief Actuary have said that, under Obamacare, insurance premiums would be higher than under current law.

So, the solution to high premiums is to pass legislation that would raise them?In each of these ways, the disconnect between cause and effect, problem and solution, rhetoric and reality, is astounding.

Of course, the biggest disconnect is between the Obama administration and the American people. Americans have made it abundantly clear that they don’t want Obamacare. President Obama has made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t care."

CBN News has learned exclusively that five Muslim soldiers at Fort Jackson in South Carolina were questioned just before Christmas. It is unclear whether the men are still in custody. The five were part of the Arabic Translation program at the base.

Patrick Jones, the Deputy Public Affairs Officer for Fort Jackson, confirmed for CBN News Thursday afternoon that an investigation was ongoing.

Prior to this posting, CBN News learned that these details were also confirmed by a government official with knowledge of the investigation.

The men are suspected of trying to poison the food supply at Fort Jackson.

A source with intimate knowledge of the investigation, which is ongoing, told CBN News investigators suspect the "Fort Jackson Five" may have been in contact with the group of five Washington, D.C., area Muslims that traveled to Pakistan to wage jihad against U.S. troops in December. That group was arrested by Pakistani authorities, also just before Christmas.

Coming as it does on the heels of November's Fort Hood jihadist massacre, this news could have major implications.

"Yet now the ISI is publicly involved in Baradar's capture (or defection)."

I believe it's best called protective custody.

One consultant and Stan-Stan veteran on Fox had it right: Baradar's been accessible for a long time now.

It's simply not a reflection of reality, however, to deny the former administration any and all credit for movement that continues to pick up momentum in Pakistan. We would have been starting at zero had they not decided to "educate" the new PakGov through the UAV ops. (The JSOC-CIA brain child.)

Once that "education" was underway, Pakistani intel officials picked up confirmation responsibility for each hit. A little-noticed but happy indicator of more than acquiescence. ("Duplicity" at least acknowledges that you have more than one side.)

There's a long way to go yet. Long, long way to go.

That's why the public perception of solid progress is so critical right now.

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.